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The demand by citizens, businesses and the general public to enjoy quality service delivery from government and its affiliated agencies have prompted governments around the world to adopt and implement e-government as a tool to provide the higher demand for higher standards of government public services. Government is, therefore, leveraging the advancement and development in the information and communication technologies such as the internet to provide quality online services to citizens (Verkijika & De Wet, 2018). The use of these information and communication technologies to provide quality public services and information to citizens and businesses and other stakeholders in society is known as e-government (Dwivedi et al., 2017; Padmapriya, 2013). The ultimate driver of the implementation of e-government by the government is to provide efficient and effective government services to key actors in society. The implementation of e-government has numerous benefits to citizens and government (Ali, Mazen, & Hassanein, 2018). It can allow citizens to manage data, enjoy better service delivery and have access to multiple communication channels and for the government, it increases productivity, impacts positively on the economic development, shared global knowledge and automated business processes and communications (Ali et al., 2018).
In order to understand the factors influencing citizens to adopt and use e-government services, many recent studies have attempted to explore what drives citizens towards the adoption of e-government service (Verkijika & De Wet, 2018). Some of these major factors which have been explored to influence the intention to use e-government services are trust in the internet and trust in government (Abu-Shanab, 2017; Lallmahomed, Lallmahomed, & Lallmahomed, 2017; Zhao & Khan, 2013). Trust in the internet is considered as citizens perception that the use of e-government services through the internet medium is highly secure and does not affect their personal safety and privacy (Abu-Shanab, 2017; Rehman, Kamal, & Esichaikul, 2012). Trust in government is the extent to which citizens have confidence about the potential of government and its agencies to provide public services through e-government (Bélanger & Carter, 2008; Lallmahomed et al., 2017). Another major factor which has been explored in the context of citizens’ adoption of e-government services is perceived usefulness which is one of the major determinants of the behavioral intention to use in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1989; Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989). Studies have shown that trust in the internet has a positive effect on the behavioral intention to use (Aloud & Ibrahim, 2018; Bélanger & Carter, 2008; Kurfalı, et al.,; Verkijika & De Wet, 2018). Also, it has been established that trust in government is positively related to the behavioral intention to use (Aloud & Ibrahim, 2018; Lallmahomed et al., 2017; Ma, 2018; Verkijika & De Wet, 2018). Again, perceived usefulness has been shown to have a direct effect on the intention to use (Aloud & Ibrahim, 2018; Ismailova, Muhametjanova, & Kurambayev, 2018).